<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css" type='text/css' />
<link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../icons/pyfav.png" type="image/png" />
<link rel='start' href='../index.html' title='Python documentation Index' />
<link rel="first" href="lib.html" title='Python library Reference' />
<link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" />
<link rel='index' href='genindex.html' title='Index' />
<link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel="next" href="module-fnmatch.html" />
<link rel="prev" href="module-tempfile.html" />
<link rel="parent" href="filesys.html" />
<link rel="next" href="module-fnmatch.html" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name='aesop' content='information' />
<title>11.7 glob -- Unix style pathname pattern expansion</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="navigation">
<div id='top-navigation-panel' xml:id='top-navigation-panel'>
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="11.6 tempfile  "
  href="module-tempfile.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="11. file and Directory"
  href="filesys.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up one Level' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="11.8 fnmatch  "
  href="module-fnmatch.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
  href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
  href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Index' width='32' /></a></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="module-tempfile.html">11.6 tempfile  </a>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="filesys.html">11. File and Directory</a>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="module-fnmatch.html">11.8 fnmatch  </a>
</div>
<hr /></div>
</div>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->

<h1><a name="SECTION0013700000000000000000">
11.7 <tt class="module">glob</tt> --
         <span class="Unix">Unix</span> style pathname pattern expansion</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-glob"></a>

<p>
The <tt class="module">glob</tt> module finds all the pathnames matching a specified
pattern according to the rules used by the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> shell.  No tilde
expansion is done, but <code>*</code>, <code>?</code>, and character ranges
expressed with <code>[]</code> will be correctly matched.  This is done by
using the <tt class="function">os.listdir()</tt> and <tt class="function">fnmatch.fnmatch()</tt>
functions in concert, and not by actually invoking a subshell.  (For
tilde and shell variable expansion, use <tt class="function">os.path.expanduser()</tt>
and <tt class="function">os.path.expandvars()</tt>.)
<a id='l2h-2285' xml:id='l2h-2285'></a>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2283' xml:id='l2h-2283' class="function">glob</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>pathname</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a possibly-empty list of path names that match <var>pathname</var>,
which must be a string containing a path specification.
<var>pathname</var> can be either absolute (like
<span class="file">/usr/src/Python-1.5/Makefile</span>) or relative (like
<span class="file">../../Tools/*/*.gif</span>), and can contain shell-style wildcards.
Broken symlinks are included in the results (as in the shell).
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2284' xml:id='l2h-2284' class="function">iglob</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>pathname</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return an iterator which yields the same values as <tt class="function">glob()</tt>
without actually storing them all simultaneously.

<span class="versionnote">New in version 2.5.</span>

</dl>

<p>
For example, consider a directory containing only the following files:
<span class="file">1.gif</span>, <span class="file">2.txt</span>, and <span class="file">card.gif</span>.  <tt class="function">glob()</tt>
will produce the following results.  Notice how any leading components
of the path are preserved.

<p>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
&gt;&gt;&gt; import glob
&gt;&gt;&gt; glob.glob('./[0-9].*')
['./1.gif', './2.txt']
&gt;&gt;&gt; glob.glob('*.gif')
['1.gif', 'card.gif']
&gt;&gt;&gt; glob.glob('?.gif')
['1.gif']
</pre></div>

<p>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-fnmatch.html">fnmatch</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Shell-style filename (not path) expansion.
  </dl>
</div>

<div class="navigation">
<div class='online-navigation'>
<p></p><hr />
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="11.6 tempfile  "
  href="module-tempfile.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="11. file and Directory"
  href="filesys.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Up one Level' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="11.8 fnmatch  "
  href="module-fnmatch.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Next Page' width='32' /></a></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
  href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Contents' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
  href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
  border='0' height='32'  alt='Index' width='32' /></a></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="module-tempfile.html">11.6 tempfile  </a>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="filesys.html">11. File and Directory</a>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="module-fnmatch.html">11.8 fnmatch  </a>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
</div>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->
<address>
See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes.
</address>
</body>
</html>
